Hetairai were the courtesans of the ancient Greek world. They were known for their beauty, intelligence, and wit as well as being some of the only women in most Greek city-states to be highly educated. Of course, their ability to function outside the rules circumscribing the lives of respectable women* came at a cost: the commodification of their sexuality. In Athens, women were either respectable wives and daughters or they were considered prostitutes of one sort or another. That said, it’s important to note that they were considered a distinct group, separate from prostitutes. The expectations were different. These were women who were expected to be well educated enough to actively participate in the discussions at symposia and sometimes to advise their lovers. Indeed, Aspasia was claimed to have heavily influenced Socrates.** At the very least, she is known to have guided Pericles well. Many of them were also well versed in the arts of music and dance. They tended to have a fair amount of money in their own right and generally had independent control of it. Many sources claim that they were shrewd, grasping, and greedy. I suspect such authors would have used similar, much more complimentary words had they been talking about men.

Are those two wearing some really weird hats or is that just their hair?[Teracotta group of hetaera and young man at a symposium, 4th century BCE][photographed by MatthiasKabel, source: Wikimedia Commons]

The usage of the word “hetaira” is, however, a bit complicated. The root of the word, “hetair-,“ means simply “companion.” Scholars frequently assume the word only had sexual connotations in its simplest feminine form. The masculine form, “hetairos,” is said to mean “close friend” and to have no sexual connotation. While that may have been the general rule, it seems unlikely to me that the masculine form was never sexual. It’s also worth noting that use of the feminine form of the word did not necessarily imply sexuality. Both Sappho 124/29 and an Athenian funerary inscription refer to one woman as “hetaira” to another and in the former at least, the implication is not sexual. Regardless of the usage of the word, however, calling these women “companions” extended to these women some implication of equality with men while simultaneously leaving them at risk because they weren’t “respectable.” *Read: women considered fit to be wives by Greek (mostly Athenian, since the overwhelming majority of our sources come from there) standards. **Whether or not this was merely satire is uncertain. However, even if it was satire, it’s important to note that after a certain point, people took the claim seriously.